The present invention refers to a control module for controlling electric windows wherein there is a respective actuator for each window and concerns particulars of the actuators and their arrangement.
In motor vehicles, endeavors are made to give the controls for various facilities a logical layout and control function so that the driver, without taking his eyes off the roadway, can find the controls and achieve the desired control function. Increased traffic safety is thereby achieved, since the driver has no need to look at the controls in order to identify the right control and the right direction of operation of the control. Operating the wrong control and thereby activating a piece of equipment or window other than that which the driver intended causes irritation which can affect traffic safety.
To this end, a practice previously known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,390 is to design the seat adjustment controls so that they resemble the seat adjusted in shape, and the various control segments have a direction of control movement corresponding to the seat adjustment. This makes it possible to identify by fingers, for example the control segment corresponding to the seat level and to press it down in order to achieve a corresponding lowering of the seat level.
A variant on this aspect of seat adjustment is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,724, which also depicts a control module for windows. The control module for windows is designed such that a cluster or recess disposed in the vehicle includes two opposing vertical surfaces which are disposed in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and correspond to its sides, where the controls are positioned on the surfaces corresponding to the positions of the side windows in the vehicle. This arrangement does however require a relatively large space for the control module. Another problem is that controls and control modules have as far as possible to be placed close together because available space is limited and because not all the free surfaces around the driver should be cluttered up with different control modules. Central consoles, for example, contain a multiplicity of other equipment which has likewise to be accommodated, such as ignition switch, hand brake, storage surfaces, and pockets etc.
A vehicle model sold in Sweden under the designation MAZDA 626 has on its central console a side window control module which utilises toggle switches disposed on an axis running in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, with reversed control logic for the left and right side windows respectively. The window controls are grouped relatively close together in the corners of an imaginary rectangle in the horizontal plane on the central console so that the controls situated to the left of the vehicle centerline control the left side windows and the controls situated to the right of the vehicle centerline control the right side windows. Each window is raised by pressing the respective control down at its end situated furthest from the vehicle centerline and is lowered by pressing down the portion of the toggle switch which is situated closest to the vehicle centerline. This control module involves no logical control movements for closing/raising the windows, since the controls have to be pressed down to make the windows rise. Nor can the right control be identified unless the driver feels the whole or parts of the control module in addition to the control desired.